Owens Lake Dust Storm
Owens Lake Dust Storm
On this morning I drove over 200 miles, wondering what was causing thick haze and poor air quality all the way. It appeared as if there were some large forest fires, but text messaging friends, no one had heard of any.
Eventually I reached Owens Lake, mostly dry due to diversion of its incoming water sources by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to support building endless subdivisions in the California desert. The caustic alkali dust was blowing in high volume in a southernly direction, and the cyclonic rotation of air from passing storms was spreading it all over Southern California and Nevada. North of the lake, the air was clear!
I can't help but wonder what the benefit is, in terms of gaining enough water to build another subdivision or two, vs. the cost to health of a few million residents in increased asthma and other respiratory issues. Someone profits off the development, but the quality of life (and in some cases length of life) declines. LADWP is installing sprinklers on some of the lake bed, and is building shallow pools of water as well. The last figure I read was that roughly 30-35% of the lake bed can be moistened to reduce dust. Clearly that still leaves a lot of microscopic alkali dust particles to get airborne, and lodged deep into your lungs!
So what do you suggest doing with the people living in LA? Let them die from lack of water? Forced sterilization to stop the population growth? They have to have water from somewhere.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article and images http://davidmaisel.com/works/lak_2011.asp Webcams show white on the East Side. Must be beautiful.
ReplyDeleteLOL, some of us op north would not be too sorry to see LA gone ;-), +Todd Selby. They waste water down there like there's no tomorrow, and it's all coming from up here. Anyway, a very thought provoking image, Jeff.
ReplyDeleteThe population growth is not easy to control, like in LA.
ReplyDeleteMarianne Bush Still doesn't make sense to say should stop building house because unless you do something with the people in the region they have to have a place to live.
ReplyDeleteDon't be silly, there's plenty of water. It's simply not allocated in a way that is healthy for residents. How many incremental respiratory deaths are green lawns worth? How many years of your life are you willing to give up simply to not to have to make any tradeoffs whatsoever in water usage? As pollution increases from more population/autos and from increasing levels coming across the Pacific from Asia, might it be a reasonable step to minimize the health impact and costs by taking simple steps to reduce local sources?
ReplyDeleteJeffrey Sullivan Your the one being silly just making statements and not offering any solutions but I guess that is the easiest course of action,next to changing what you are arguing from statement to statement, which you also did.
ReplyDeleteTodd Selby Why would leaving more water in Owens Lake to benefit Southern Californians' health require "doing something with" people living there, or population control?
ReplyDeleteOh, and talk about growing. Check out Las Vegas: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6955987375/
ReplyDeleteJeffrey Sullivan They have to drink something don't they? You say well just don't water the grass which is silly if your worried about particulates since the acres and acres of yards would turn to dust leading to more particulates. Besides you started out saying there were too many houses and too many people and that is what caused the lake to have to be drained. So you still haven't offered any solution to what you claim to be a problem.
ReplyDeleteAn estimated 11.9% of Californians - 3.9 million children and adults - have been diagnosed with asthma, 20% higher than the national average. Medical costs for asthma average $3300-4900 per year per person. Nearly 667,000 school-aged children in California have experienced asthma symptoms during the past 12 months. Several members of my family have asthma.
ReplyDeleteCalifornia can reduce waste on the agricultural side, look at opportunities to conserve on the municipal side, and reduce the unnecessary health effects and cost inflicted on residents.
No one can imagine how power full our nature. We may some times enjoy her beauty, but all of sudden she can does any disaster;No science , no power, nothing can resist her.
ReplyDeleteSo true ! Yet we boast of our power and ability !! @ tutul Ganguly
ReplyDeleteThank you Sir, my knowledge in every aspect is very little. I just write what I think true. Your comment knocked my
ReplyDeletemind. If you kindly explain your comment briefly to me, I will be enlighten....
its beautiful....
ReplyDeletethank u dear
ReplyDeleteah. the serenity :)
ReplyDeletehey, true it's simply serinity which u only know wise man.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your wonderful observation regarding our mother Nature. I just agreed and added that humans
ReplyDeleteare just puppets. Wealthy people are involved establishing supremacy against the poor and this is an example
of boasting by the tiny puppets. Apartheid was another trait which wrecked us for long. Thanks these are eradicated
officially, at least. Thanks again.@ tutul Ganguly
Mr. Chowdhury you deserve this thanks. You have enlighten my little
ReplyDeleteobservation,
And most importantly, puppets have population control; Nature has tsunami, earthquakes, avalanche, flood, tornadoes, Irene, Katrina, Nargis etc.
ReplyDeleteCould the lake be cleaned out, of dust and dirt and refilled, even partially, in future rain events like El Ninyo? If we could keep more of water on the land areas of the earth maybe we could reduce the flood waters from running into the oceans.
ReplyDeleteIn other words slow the water rise of the oceans by keeping it on land. That would refurbish the ground water & slow sea levels from rising . It seems irresponsable to me that we have these Man made Dry lakes in the first place. If we could do something, maybe the next Hurricane Sandy event would not due, So much damage.